The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (190721).Volume IX. From Steele and Addison to Pope and Swift.

II. Steele and Addison.

§ 11. Collaboration of Addison.

This collaborator was Addision.71 In reality, his achievement was the fruit of a mental readjustment more laborious and fundamental than Steeles, though of a different character. Like the creator of The Tatler, Addison had to put new wine into old bottles. He was a man of scholarly habits and unusual ability, but taciturn and lacking in initiative. When Steele plunged into London life, Addison was studying at Magdalen, where he peacefully won academic distinction and stored his mind with the wit and wisdom of antiquity.